High School Notebook: Sports spotlight finally shines on Northbrook

NOTEBOOK

MK BOWER, Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, April 8, 2004

Admit it. Those of you who follow area high school athletics and are familiar with the programs that are successful in everything from football to swimming, basketball to cross country, baseball to volleyball to track were befuddled when you first learned Northbrook would represent Region III at the Class 5A boys state soccer tournament this weekend.

Northbrook? Where the heck is that? Is it a newly opened campus? What school district is it in? Why haven't I heard of that school during football or basketball seasons?

Give yourself a blue star if you knew Northbrook is part of Spring Branch ISD. Pat yourself on the back if you can locate its campus, nestled in northwest Houston and bordering Cy-Fair, Aldine and Houston ISDs. Score double points if you knew the school mascot (the Raiders) and are aware of how many postseason appearances in football Northbrook has made since its first graduating class in 1975 (zero).

Now, applaud Northbrook for accomplishing something that was a long time coming.

"It's no question," said Northbrook athletic director Pat Alvarado on whether the Raiders were due for some of the athletic spotlight. "But just like other schools that shared similar patterns, we still go to work every day. At the beginning of each year, there is the hope that this will be the year. We've never been without that."

It takes the patience of Job to have such an attitude at Northbrook. Not only have the Raiders never tasted success in football, it has been 13 years since they last qualified for the postseason in basketball or baseball. In terms of athletics, Northbrook is as anonymous a 5A school as you'll find locally, ranking near the bottom in terms of an athletic identity.

"Northbrook is in a place where you get a lot of new immigrant population, and they're not into extracurricular activities in general," said Spring Branch ISD athletic director L.P. Jones, who coached at Northbrook from 1978-89 as an assistant in football and track before returning to serve as the head football coach/athletic director from 1995-98. "They've got to work to make ends meet, or you have a lot of players who have to stay home and babysit because mom and dad were working late. You deal with that."

Like the other Spring Branch ISD campuses, Northbrook has a relatively small enrollment (2,180 students) for a 5A school. Of that total, just under 80 percent are Hispanic, and many of that total are first- or second-generation Mexican immigrants, which explains the general disinterest for such sports such as football and basketball.

More than 71 percent of Northbrook students come from low-income families, and the school has a 5.1 percent dropout rate, reinforcing the notion of a transient student body. The only sport Northbrook students frequently rally behind in large numbers is soccer.

"Coach (Justin) Wheeler has been able to take a group and keep them around for a few years," Jones said. "To take on the transition of students moving out and moving in, all of that caused an uphill battle which coach Wheeler has overcome with his players."

Northbrook will be the underdog when it meets undefeated Coppell tonight in the state semifinals. But regardless of the result, these Raiders already have shown a commitment to excellence. Northbrook, deservedly so, is enjoying the sweet taste of success.

"After the (Region III-5A final) on Saturday, I was almost crying over there because it was so much fun," Jones said. "I can't describe the excitement we've had with that win.

"It's just been harder and harder to be successful, and to reach this point . ... I hope it carries over (to other sports). The whole idea of the extracurricular activity is to take kids to their highest potential at every level."

1994 Clear Creek team reached state

-- While waxing poetic in this space last week about the near misses Clear Creek experienced at the Region III-5A girls basketball tournament under coach
Peggy Whitley
in the late 1990s, we overlooked the state tournament berth in 1994.

That season, Clear Creek defeated Elsik for the regional title before falling in the state semifinals 58-37 to Amarillo, which went on to defeat Conroe in the Class 5A final.

Newcomb retiring from Pasadena

--
Bill Newcomb
will conclude 40 years in education in Pasadena ISD when he retires July 31 as its athletic director, a post he has held since 1995.

MK Bower covers high schools for the Chronicle. His notebook appears Thursdays.